ts he read and explained to them in their order the four holy books
of the evangelists; and all who heard him accounted that not more time
had passed than the space but of one day--so happily were they
deceived, so profitably were they delighted, by the words of grace
which proceeded out of his mouth. O profitable, delightful deception!
whereby falsehood is excluded and truth induced; whereby the time is
beguiled, and the night is stolen away, and one day is made to appear
as three days. Nor let the reader admire for that I call it a
deception when the prophet exclaimeth unto his Creator, "O Lord! Thou
hast deceived me," and when the Apostle Paul sayeth unto certain of his
disciples, "Being crafty, I deceived you with guile." Kind deception
which saveth souls! Blessed seduction which induces unto God!

CHAPTER XCV.

_Of the Vision of the Blessed Brigida, and its Explanation._

And the blessed Brigida was at these meetings; and at one, having
reclined her head, she slept. And the holy prelate forbade that any
one should arouse the beloved of God until she herself would awaken; so
did it appear how evidently what is said in the Canticles agreed with
her; "I sleep, but mine heart waketh"; for that his heavenly Spouse
revealed unto her all His mysteries. And when the holy virgin awaked,
he enjoined her that she should tell unto them all what she had beheld
in her vision. And she, obeying the command of the saint, said: "I
beheld an assembly of persons clothed in white raiment; and I beheld
ploughs, and oxen, and standing corn, all white, and immediately they
became all spotted, and afterward they became all black; and in the end
I beheld sheep and swine, dogs and wolves, fighting all and contending
together." Then Saint Patrick expounded the vision, and said that the
whiteness pertained unto the state of the world as it then was; for all
the prelates and servants of the church were then fruitful and diligent
in faith and in good works, even according to the evangelic and
apostolic doctrine. And the things which were spotted belonged, as he
said, to the time of the succeeding generation, which would be pure in
faith, but stained with evil works. And the blackness, he said, was
the season of the following generation, when the world would be
profaned, not only with evil works, but with the renunciation of the
Christian faith. And the contest of the sheep and the swine, of the
dogs and the wolves, he pronoun